Like all professional educators, my main focus as a teacher has always been to deliver the best instruction every day for every student in my classroom. In order to improve my instruction and accomplish my goals, I began the coaching cycle with Maggie Cummins, our STAT Teacher. This process has not only influenced my teaching and impacted my students, but has also been a major influence in shaping the feedback I provide to my department members as Department Chair.
The coaching cycle began with Maggie visiting my classroom to script a lesson. She came into my classroom to observe students during a collaborative group assignment. After reviewing directions with students, I spent most of class visiting groups to assist them in researching how the discovery of silver in South America impacted the native population, Spain, and the international economy.
After this initial visit, I met with Maggie to review the transcript of my lesson and to discuss the goals for my instruction and my students. Before diving into the coaching conversation, Maggie asked me to read through the transcript from her visit. This was an eye-opening experience that allowed me to take a subjective look at my instruction and my role in the classroom. One of my instructional goals is to create a student-centered classroom in which students are collaborating to research historical topics and answer research questions that they have constructed. After reviewing this transcript, I realized that there were many instances in which I was assisting individual students with accessing content and using research databases. Though I was helping my students, I was realized through my conversation with Maggie that I was spending a majority of time helping my students overcome executive functioning barriers instead of truly facilitating collaborative learning. In order to truly create a collaborative, student-centered classroom driven through research and application of historical thinking skills, I needed to focus on an additional goal. I needed to work to alleviate issues with executive functioning to empower my students instead of assisting each one of them when they hit similar roadblocks.
After this initial visit, I met with Maggie to review the transcript of my lesson and to discuss the goals for my instruction and my students. Before diving into the coaching conversation, Maggie asked me to read through the transcript from her visit. This was an eye-opening experience that allowed me to take a subjective look at my instruction and my role in the classroom. One of my instructional goals is to create a student-centered classroom in which students are collaborating to research historical topics and answer research questions that they have constructed. After reviewing this transcript, I realized that there were many instances in which I was assisting individual students with accessing content and using research databases. Though I was helping my students, I was realized through my conversation with Maggie that I was spending a majority of time helping my students overcome executive functioning barriers instead of truly facilitating collaborative learning. In order to truly create a collaborative, student-centered classroom driven through research and application of historical thinking skills, I needed to focus on an additional goal. I needed to work to alleviate issues with executive functioning to empower my students instead of assisting each one of them when they hit similar roadblocks.
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As a result of this initial conversation and the coaching conversations that have followed, I have been able to reflect more clearly on the successes and areas of growth within my instruction in order to accomplish my goals. I have worked diligently to create executive functioning supports for historical research assignments. Through participating in the coaching cycle, I have been able to more clearly and subjectively reflect on my own teaching practice to impact my students in a more powerful way and act as facilitator during inquiry-based research assignments.
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As a Department Chair, I strive to create a professional learning environment for my staff members that encourages risk taking in the name of providing the best education for students. I want the teachers in my department to feel supported in their efforts, and I view the informal observation process as one means of providing this support. Beginning the coaching cycle with our STAT Teacher has undoubtedly helped me to improve my own observation and feedback for the teachers in my department. I am better able to focus on their instructional goals when providing feedback and am working to craft questions that inspire more meaningful self-reflection. Experiencing the coaching cycle has enabled me to not only develop tools necessary to improve my own instruction, but to support my department members in reflecting and accomplishing their own goals.
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